Technical Field
The invention relates to a method for reducing overactive bladder syndrome and a computer-readable medium utilizing such method.
Related Art
Overactive bladder, also known as overactive bladder syndrome, is a condition where there is an urge feeling of needing to urinate immediately. Persons suffered from overactive bladder syndrome often urinate involuntarily when they have such urge feeling and even before they go to toilet. Overactive bladder is caused by involuntary contraction of the detrusor urinae muscle which results in that the bladder pressure increases abnormally. The symptoms of overactive bladder usually include abnormal urinary frequency (urinating more than eight times in a day), urgency (sudden, compelling desire to pass urine that is difficult to defer), nocturia (interrupted sleep because of an urge to void more than twice during the night), and urge incontinence (involuntary loss of urine occurring for no apparent reason while feeling urinary urgency). In America, about 200 thousands of persons are suffered from overactive bladder syndrome, and most of them are elders.
Overactive bladder is usually treated with medications, such as oxybutynin chloride drugs, calcium antagonists, and flavoxate. Oxybutynin chloride is an anticholinergic medication used to relieve urge incontinence by reducing involuntary contraction of the detrusor urinae muscle of the bladder. Calcium antagonists and flavoxate can help to stabilize the overactive bladder. Some other medications, such as female hormones and Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs, a sympathetic inhibitor), are reported to show therapeutic effects to overactive bladder syndrome under some circumstances. Overactive bladder can also be treated with surgery, such as bladder augmentation (augmentation cystoplasty), detrusor myomectomy, pudendal neurectomy, and bladder removal. In addition, treatment for overactive bladder also includes nonpharmacologic methods, such as bladder retraining and pelvic floor muscle (PFM) exercise.
As shown in FIG. 22, in the rat model of neuropathic pain provided by Ronen Shechter et al. (Ronen Shechter et al. (2013, August), Conventional and Kilohertz-frequency Spinal Cord Stimulation Produces Intensity- and Frequency-dependent Inhibition of Mechanical Hypersensitivity in a Rat Model of Neuropathic Pain, ANESTHESIOLOGY, 119(2), 422-32), the rats with spinal cord injuries were received an electrical stimulation with frequency of 50 Hz to 10 kHz for thirty minutes (80% MoT, constant current, current intensity 0.6 mA-0.7 mA). The paw withdraw thresholds started to drop at 30 minutes after end of the electrical stimulation. Also, it is noted that the paw withdraw thresholds returned to pre-stimulation level at 5 days after the last electrical stimulation. In other words, such conventional electrical stimulation did not provide a long term effect. Patients may have to receive such electrical stimulation for every 4-5 days (or even several times for one day) so as to continuously ameliorate the symptoms caused by neural hypersensitivity. However, such treatment will make patients more and more uncomfortable and also increase the inconvenience of the treating course.
However, there is some deficiency in each of those abovementioned treatments for overactive bladder. For treating with medications, it usually accompanied with side effects caused by drugs and increases the burden of some organs of patients. The side effects caused by the medications used in treating overactive bladder usually include dry mouth, constipation, headache, blurred vision, hypertension, sleepiness, and/or ischuria (urinary retention). In addition, some population, such as pregnant women or persons having liver, kidney, stomach or urinal tract disorders, are not suitable for such medications.
Therefore, it is important to provide a method for reducing overactive bladder syndrome which can effectively ameliorate symptoms of overactive bladder with long-term effects and make the patients to avoid the embarrassment caused by urinary incontinence, without the side effects caused by drugs, and also reduce the possibility of infection caused by operation.